Re: A unique Wisconsin whiskey - Queen Jennie Sorghum Whiskey

According to the website, they're making it from sorghum syrup, so I would guess it tastes more like rum than anything else. Although the small barrels might screw with that profile. After looking at the website again, it appears that they have a cane-rum that they age in small barrels as well. I'd be marginally curious to compare the two, but not to the point of spending money on it.

Re: A unique Wisconsin whiskey - Queen Jennie Sorghum Whiskey

No, I generally avoid craft distillers. Nothing personal, I just don't care for whiskey that's underaged and overpriced. But I will look for the Border Bourbon. I wonder whether they're using 53 gallon barrels or smaller-- they claim the stave are air dried for 3 years. That a good thing. I wonder what their proof off the still and entry proof is. I think I'll send them an e-mail.

Re: A unique Wisconsin whiskey - Queen Jennie Sorghum Whiskey

Wow, I emailed the guys at 45th parallel and I already got a response. Without going into too much detail, here is what I learned: all matured in 53 gallon barrels, relatively high proof off the still, moderately low entry proof. Could be decent.

Re: A unique Wisconsin whiskey - Queen Jennie Sorghum Whiskey

""Sorghum Whiskey" is a misnomer, and a subject of a major international trade dispute with the European Union (EU) on one side and India on the other. The United States agrees with the EU.

There is a product made in India which producers and consumers there call whiskey. It is, however, made from sorghum or sugar cane, not cereals. Therefore the EU (and U.S.) won't allow it to be called whiskey in those markets. In the U.S., spirits made from sugar cane can be called rum. There is no specific designation for spirits made from sorghum, so they get stuck under some catch-all like "spirit specialty."

Corn (maize), wheat, barley, rye, sugar cane, and sorghum are all grasses, so what's the distinction? The U.S. regs use the term "grain" in the definition of whiskey. The EU uses "cereal."

Any botanists out there?

I assume the distinction is in what part of the plant is used. Whiskey uses the seeds. Rum and sorghum spirit use the stalk.

There is such a thing as grain sorghum. It is the third most important cereal crop grown in the United States and the fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world. It's primarily used as animal feed.

It's a sub-species known as sweet sorghum that is used to make spirits. It is processed much like sugar cane into a sweet syrup that can be fermented.

Sorghum is interesting because it was once widely cultivated and used in the American South, as it grows reliably in areas too far north for cane. Sorghum is an annual. Sugarcane is a perennial.

Sorghum syrup was to the southern states what maple syrup was to the North. Until the 1950s it was more popular there than sugar. Sorghum syrup was often marketed as sorghum molasses and since many of the people who used it weren't familiar with any other kind of molasses, they often just call it molasses, which confuses other people who think they mean the byproduct of white sugar production.

Sorghum molasses isn't as popular as it used to be but it still is made in the southern highlands. Using "molasses" is also confusing because true molasses is a by-product and comes in different grades, depending on how much of the sugar processing residue it contains. Sorghum molasses is the only product of sorghum processing and there is only one grade.

Since sorghum molasses was widely known and used throughout the South, one wonders if it was ever distilled? It very probably was on a small scale but I've never seen any indications that it was ever produced on a commercial scale."

"Most "whiskey" is made from grain, which makes Queen Jennie another of the category-defying spirits from the iconoclastic distillery. We have no category for sorghum--this is the only sorghum whiskey we're aware of anywhere in the world--and rather than classify it as some kind of blended whiskey (which it isn't) or put it with wheat whiskey (which it really isn't), we have gone with "exotic" (which it kind of is)."

"Sorghum Syrup is made by cooking the juice from the stalk of the Sorghum plant."

Spirit is the most accurate term.

Possible...."BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Syrup 45DE High Maltose is a gluten free, 100% concentrated wort made from the unmalted grain, not the cane, of the white sorghum plant....BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Sorghum Syrup 45DE High Maltose is the only gluten-free syrup with the necessary color, flavor, FAN and fermentability to produce a beer that closely mimics beer made from malted barley. "

Re: A unique Wisconsin whiskey - Queen Jennie Sorghum Whiskey

Here is an official response: "Since the sorghum plant is a grain, the TTB allowed us to call it whiskey."

However, the juice does come from the stalks. Odd.

I guess the TTB takes a liberal approach to classification. I could see it if the syrup came from the seed as
I noted above in the variety actually used for that purpose. This is more like a rum to me.